Diagnosis of fetal virus infections by in situ hybridization

Non-radioactive in situ hybridization of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded placental and foetal tissue, using virus-specific DNA or RNA probes, may be helpful for the diagnosis of foetal virus infection causing foetal hydrops, granulomatous placentitis and abortion. We present four cases of intrauterine CMV-, Parvo-B19- and Varicella-Zoster virus infection, in which this diagnostic method established detection of the virus.